Vowell v. Issaquah Coal Co.

Citations

• 31 Wash. 103
• 71 P. 725
• 1903 Wash. LEXIS 590

Syllabus

<p>WITNESSES-CROSS-EXAMINATION.</p> <p>In an action for the death of a coal miner, due to the fact that the timbers in the air-shaft caught fire from fires outside the mine, it was not error to allow a witness to be asked on cross-examination, although not examined in chief on the point, as to whether, if a system of bells had been provided in the mine, deceased could have been notified of the fire in time to have saved his life, where the witness had testified in chief that he was superintendent of the mine and had been examined as an expert upon the proper handling of the mine.</p> <p>TRIAL-MISCONDUCT OF ATTORNEY' — ■ INDULGENCE IN COLLATERAL REMARKS.</p> <p>The fact that attorneys in the course of a heated trial indulged in collateral remarks, not pertinent to the issues, would not be ground for reversal, in the absence of a showing that the jury was unduly influenced thereby to the prejudice of the adverse party.</p> <p>JURORS-MISCONDUCT-CONVERSATION WITH PARTY.</p> <p>The refusal of the court to discharge a jury during trial because one of the jurors and one of the plaintiffs had indulged in a conversation together during an intermission was not error, where it appeared that the talk had by them was not upon the subject of the trial, was publicly had in the corridor of the court house before many people and in the presence of some of them, and there was no showing indicating intrigue between the juror and the party.</p> <p>EXCESSIVE DAMAGES-DEATH BY WRONGFUL ACT.</p> <p>A verdict of $10,000 for the death of a coal miner through defendant’s negligence was excessive, where the deceased was a man fifty-five years of age, with an expectancy of life of seventeen years, and an earning capacity of $50 per month, which could not presumably be continued without intermission until he was seventy-two years of age, especially in view of the fact that his employment had never been constant prior to the time of his death.</p>